1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape cassette for use with a tape producing apparatus, and more particularly, to a tape cassette for exclusively printing on a tape-like printing medium (hereinafter referred to simply as "a tape") using a tape using an ink ribbon.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tape cassette for use with a tape producing apparatus of this type is conventionally constructed such that a tape and an ink ribbon having substantially equal widths are accommodated in a corresponding relationship in a single cassette case, and also the lengths of the tape and the ink ribbon are substantially equal to each other. After the tape or the ink ribbon is used up, the entire cassette case is replaced, and the cassette case after use is scrapped. A tape cassette of the type just described is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei 4-32290.
However, there is room for improvement in the following points in the conventional tape cassette described above.
As the amount of use of tapes increases, the amount of scrapped cassette cases increases, and consequently, effective use of resources is not achieved, and cinders and smoke produced upon burning of cassette cases damages the environment. If the lengths of the tape and the ink ribbon accommodated in a tape cassette are increased to a great extent, then the amount of the scrapped cassette case per unit length of the tape decreases. However, this raises new problems that the size of the cassette case must be necessarily increased and that also the size of a tape producing apparatus with which the cassette case is used must be increased.
Further, for a user who wants to use common tapes having different printing colors and/or widths, different cassette cases must be necessarily prepared. This raises such problems that a high cost is required and that a large space is required for accommodation of cassette cases.